Rumors: The Email

Over the past week an email from a member of the “Higher ups” in the football program has made it’s way around the Internet. For the most part is seems truthful, but the question becomes how much of this email is really new information slapped together with some big words and cryptic structure. You can take it for what it’s worth but we’ve broken this down into sections to take a look at it.

All of this critique can be refuted if someone can produce this email before the events mention below occurred, otherwise this reads a lot more like message board chatter hidden behind a few new, unconfirmable ideas and passed on as “my source says”.

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“So here’s the extent of what I am hearing..

1. Joe is apparently sick. The rumors vary as to what he actually has or has undergone over the last 9 months, but none of it is good. Anyone that has any sort of day-to-day contact with him has been saying this. Instead of looking bad once every 10 public appearances, hes bad every other appearancewe see it in the p.c.s, but other people say its more evident when you see him in person. Some people literally thought he was at deaths door during the season. Its been that bad at times. One rumor is that he has had 3 mini strokes in the past month. He is apparently no longer allowed to drive, and his short term memory is completely shot.

• It wasn’t a state secret that Joe was sick this offseason, the question just had been how much of it was the flu. Most of this section seems likely, but there isn’t any way to confirm Paterno’s current medical status outside of what we see. For the most part he looks like your average 84 year old. Good days and bad days. Mini strokes seem possible as well as the rumors of intestinal cancer but we may never know.

2. Apparently this all came to a head at the senior banquet. Tons of players tweeted crap about how out of it he was..said it was going to be great to play in a Thanksgiving Day Bowl.someone in admin. Reached out to every living captain that played for him and asked them to write a letter to Joe, which was presented to him in a book. It was weird, because no one knew or thought anything was officially decided, but it was clear it was kind of like a send off. Anyway, he gets the book and is fine speaking for a couple of minutes, then tails off into nonsense and nobody can figure out what hes talking about.he finished up by saying I gotta go beat my old friend Spurrier in the bowl game.walks off the stage, and walks out of the room.

• This too is correct for the most part. Brandon Ware tweeted about Joe’s quote about Thanksgiving Day Bowl and Joe is known for his ablity to pick the worst times to be socially awkward. For the most part there is little to dispute in this paragraph. There is also nothing terribly alarming.

3. Within the last week, the family (Sue, Jay and whichever daughter is the power playerI forget who’s who) apparently stepped up and said this is it. There are extra planes so that the entire family can make the trip.

• No way to confirm or deny this, and unless 300 Paterno’s show up at the bowl game this will never be made public.

4. The coaches know it and its apparently clear that none of them are getting the job (Joes choice was Vandy). Vandy is in consideration for the Ball State job..Scrap has reached out to Pitt and told Big Red hell take him with wherever he ends up. LJ is apparently considering moving on completely from coaching and seeking out other opportunities.

• This is where the email starts to get fishy. Not with inaccuracy’s but that the “new” information that this email is reporting. Ball State has already hired a new coach as well as Pitt. Larry Johnson on the other hand has openly said that he would rather retire early to work within a church rather than work an extended career in coaching. This looks a lot more like putting old information in with new ideas and playing it off a credible.

5. Rumor is that Golden knows this. Some have suggested that he will take the Miami job. Others have suggested that he has taken his name out of the hat for Miami because he is the plan B candidate here.

• Once again, Golden has already taken the Miami job after this email was sent. That being said, it’s 100% likely that Golden reached out to Penn State before taking the job.

6. Multiple people have said the name is Dungy, and that contact has been made in the last couple of days, and interest is mutual. I dont know if I buy that, but I dont know why the people who have said this would suggest him when theyve all had other names on their wishlist ahead of him for a while.

• This has been message board chatter for a while, some of it coming from more reasonable sources. Only time will tell if Dungy plays a role in Penn State’s future but at this point it’s nothing more than rumor.